There’s a concept in Blue Ocean Strategy, one of my favorite books, called value innovation. To create value innovation, companies must orient themselves to deliver a “leap in value” for both themselves and their customers. 

 

Most organizations are satisfied to compete in a red ocean stained with the blood of those who came before them and swim there now. They are ensnared by the structures of the way things have always been done. 

 

Value innovation is about breaking free of those restraints, taking a fresh look at the needs of people and constructing something new that transcends current offerings. To accomplish this, you have to challenge everything about the way you do business today…including your marketing.  

 

Look at the recent elections. Yard signs for every candidate peppered the neighborhoods, medians and roadsides of the state during campaign season. Like weeds, their number seemed to increase as the election grew closer, stronger signs threatening to choke out those of less sturdy stock.  As I drove down Huguenot Road the morning of the election, a new crop of signs had sprouted overnight for Creigh Deeds. 

 

I envisioned Deeds’ supporters, and those of every other candidate running for election, braving the early fall mist to neatly place those signs, one right after another, along high-traffic roads. But to what end?  

 

Given this election’s slate of nonremarkable candidates, I guess it’s possible that an undecided voter might select the last name he saw on his way to the polls, but I doubt it. Did those who really hadn’t made up their minds actually vote? Does anybody actually look out her bedroom window and see a sign in her neighbor’s yard and yell out, “Oh honey, we don’t have to struggle with this whole decision thing anymore. The Jones’ are for McDonnell, let’s just follow their lead!” 

 

The signs don’t tell you what the candidate stands for or even what party they represent. Do those signs actually persuade, or are they simply an accepted part of the structure of campaigning that no one has bothered to challenge? 

 

The use of social media by the Obama campaign was heralded for generating consideration across a wide variety of demographic and socio-economic groups. The economy is still a mess; we’re still fighting two wars, yet voter turnout for this election didn’t draw out the independents or young people who were so engaged in last year’s election. 

 

Whether you like Obama or not, his campaign had social media figured out. They used various social media techniques to engage their audience, get them excited and ultimately to participate in the process. Computers called my house on behalf of Deeds and McDonnell and I hung up. No one engaged me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Why not? Many businesses are using social media to position themselves as experts, create buzz about their products and reinforce their brands. It worked for the Obama campaign, why wasn’t it used more effectively in Virginia’s gubernatorial race? The Obama campaign blazed a new trail in the use of social media for future candidates to follow or take to the next level. They managed to touch each segment they targeted with a relevant message delivered in the right media be it TV, radio, print, video or social media. Young, old, democrat and even moderate republicans were energized. Conversely, I had a hard time figuring out where the Virginia candidates differed which I’m sure makes them shutter. But really, what type of human being, let alone Governor doesn’t want jobs for Virginians, better schools, or safer roadways? 

 

Political pundits have had about a month to tell us what the loss of the Governor’s Mansion in Virginia means for democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections. But what if it’s not about rejecting a political ideology at all? What if the loss was more about our inability to make up our minds because there was so little differentiation?

 

The lesson to be learned from this is that when something works, build on it - don’t go backwards. If people like strong orators who can make us feel optimistic in the midst of chaos then find one to run for Governor. If finding a way to be relevant to all types of people energizes voters and gets them to the polls, talk to them the way they want to be talked to. If using new and varied channels helps you reach out to all types of voters, stop dotting the landscape with paper signs.